Brooklyn Ballet’s Decade of Dance

Brooklyn Ballet’s Decade of Dance

Brooklyn Ballet, founded by Lynn Parkerson 10 years ago and now based in Downtown Brooklyn, is celebrating its first decade by creating and performing several special events in the coming months.

Brooklyn Ballet’s 2012 season, called “Revolutionaries and Romantics,” will include a new creation by Artistic Director Parkerson, called “Forest Fairies and Peasant Revolt,” which highlights the famed Isadora Duncan — considered by many as the creator of modern dance — and her profound impact on classical ballet. The piece brings together variations from Michel Fokine’s “Les Sylphides” and Duncan’s “Chopin Dances.”

Additional dances include Duncan’s extraordinary and heroic “Revolutionary Etude,” a solo performed by Lynn Parkerson; Parkerson’s “Dolls, Dolls, Dolls,” which is a hip-hop “Nutcracker”; and the world premiere of a mixed-movement, multi-choreographed work-in-progress to Stravinsky titled “Spiders, Cooks and Mood Swings.”

The 2012 season is very personal to Parkerson. Not only does it mark a significant anniversary, but also, as she says, “‘Les Sylphides’ was the first ballet I ever saw and it was pure magic. And this new program encapsulates everything I love about working with dancers from other genres to energize the ballet form.

“[This tenth] year marks how thoroughly Brooklyn Ballet has become an integral part of the Brooklyn community.”

Live music for “Revolutionaries and Romantics” will be transcribed and performed by world-renowned violinist Gil Morgenstern, artistic director of Reflection Series International. Morgenstern will perform Tchaikovsky, as well as Stravinsky’s famed “Suite Italienne,” plus a special musical interlude featuring Manuel De Falla’s “Suite Populaire Espanole.” Pianist Julius Abrahams will join Morgenstern and also perform Scriabin’s “Revolutionary Etude.”

On Thursday, March 29, there will be a preview of “Revolutionaries and Romantics” at 7:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Ballet’s studio at 160 Schermerhorn St. (In 2009 there was a ribbon-cutting for the Brooklyn Ballet School, which is soon to be called the Actor’s Fund Arts Center.) Visit brooklynballet.org for information and tickets.

Brooklyn Ballet has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to support the season. (Big donors will receive a series of adult class at Brooklyn Ballet!) The campaign goes until March 28.